Armchair Sobro by Ana Prates

«Nature is perfect, I have always been interested in interpreting it. Nowadays there is a growing attempt to approach what we consider to be genuine, natural and takes us back to our roots and memories.»

Cork has been present in my life from a very young age. It is part of the family heritage. I’m a producer, an inheritance left by my father and grandparents.

I knew I had a lot to learn about cork, I still have. I wanted to relate to it respecting all its inherent properties and characteristics, its ancestral and emotional heritage. I feel I’ve found the best way to do it … Through design.

Thus was born, in 2014, the brand SOBRO.

Bearing in mind the creation of a range of products in cork, objects have surfaced from solutions inspired by the origami process, in which I explored the concept of bringing them from a two dimension plan to tridimensionality, testing the limitations of the material. I simplified the design and production process, which allowed me to explore various tools in a DIY process as a designer maker, starting from the properties of the material to the function of the object.

The SOBRO Armchair comes from the exploration of the flexibility, lightness and texture of cork as its main characteristics.

The Armchair stands out by the game of lines of the structure that accompanies the object’s body geometry, giving discreetness, lightness and stability to the whole. The characteristics of the material and its shape, give the chair a feeling of tranquility and comfort.

With this range of products I intend to value cork by its characteristics and differentiated offer with a simple and honest aesthetic.

I also try to engage the user by promoting their uncomplicated interaction with this material as an object.

Nature is perfect, I have always been interested in interpreting it.

Nowadays there is a growing attempt to approach what we consider to be genuine, natural and takes us back to our roots and memories.

The Armchair and the other SOBRO objects are in some way part of the current “do-it-yourself” trend, the designer-maker movement and eco-sustainability criteria. It is in the workshop that objects are born, from exploring the properties of cork through experimentation to testing the boundaries of the material. Cork allows me to explore and create objects and, at the same time, fulfilling all these premises.